Associations between visceral adipose index and stress urinary incontinence among US adult women: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Visceral adipose index (VAI) is a novel parameter for the evaluation of visceral obesity. The present study aimed to investigate the association between VAI levels and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in a nationally representative population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) women population aged > 20 years were analyzed from 2001 to 2018. SUI was determined by self-reported questions. VAI was calculated using physical examination data and laboratory tests. Survey-weighted logistic regression models were used to analyze the correlation between SUI and VAI. RESULTS: The final analysis included 9709 women. Among them, 4032 (41.53%) were any SUI, 1130 (11.64%) were at least weekly SUI, and 506 (5.21%) were at least daily SUI. In multivariate analysis, the odds ratio (OR) for overall SUI increased slightly after full adjustment (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03–1.10, P = 0.001). Similar results were observed in weekly (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.00–1.08, P = 0.0327) and daily (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.00–1.09, P = 0.0702) SUI. The analysis of VAI categorized showed an increased OR of any, weekly, and daily SUI in the highest compared to the lowest tertile (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.26–1.65, P < 0.0001 for trend, OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.07–1.78, P = 0.0153 for trend, OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.94–1.87, P = 0.094 for trend). CONCLUSION: This study revealed a significant association between SUI and VAI among US adult women. VAI is an easily applicable index for the evaluation of visceral fat dysfunction, which might be useful for the calculation of SUI risk. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00345-023-04667-7.